‘Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ’ – Is Fox sending racial signal

The Fox News-Fox Nation media empire is a triumph of niche marketing, its right-thinking reports drawing an audience that is overwhelmingly old, politically conservative and white.

But at times, race rears its head: President Obama has “a deep-seated hatred for white people,” then-Fox News host Glenn Beck charged on his show two years ago.

A playful fist bump between Barack and Michelle Obama, at a rally where he claimed the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, was described by a Fox host as a “terrorist fist jab.”

Fox Nation ran a report (taken from Politico) on the President’s 50th birthday party under the headline “Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs.” It juxtaposed pictures of Obama with three African-American celebrities — JayZ, Chris Rock and Charles Barkley.

A white group that performed at the bash, O.K. Go, was not mentioned.

Fox Nation has, in recent weeks, carried such headlines as “White Kid Beaten Up Because of Slavery” and “Obama Bringing Motown to White House . . . Boogey Down.”

The liberal Media Matters watchdog group, which monitors Fox and other Rupert Murdoch properties, commented on the party piece: “Fox’s choice of headlines and the stories that they emphasize seem designed to attract and encourage racist commentators.”

America is increasingly a multiracial nation. Can the same be said for Fox Nation?